Posts Tagged Vintage Hatbox Quilt

Remember when I said that Kate over at Tall Tales from Chiconia was making a quilt from a Kaffe Fassett book that I had lusted after for some years? (If not, you can read my original post here ). Kate’s way ahead of me with her blocks but, then again, she started first and she’s making a quilt whereas I’m late to the party and am only making a wall hanging.

Here’s the version in the book that inspired us.

All my hatboxes are going to be made in Liberty of London tana lawn with various scraps of other fabric for the ‘wallpaper’ and ‘floor’ in the ‘cubby holes’ which each contain one hatbox.

We pledged to complete three hatboxes every month.

These are my three for February.

I used this gold/yellow tana lawn that I used to make a blouse some time ago although I seem to have quite a lot of it left. I like the backgrounds here – the duck egg blue is the predominant colour in my bedroom where the finished wallhanging will be displayed.

This was actually the first one I made but it went wrong and I was going to ditch it but, in one of my rare patient and resourceful moments, managed to peel off the appliqué, re-cut it, re-position it and salvage the block.

I need twelve blocks in total. Some might not make the final cut. Although I like the background fabrics in this block – especially the Tilda one with birds – the colours might be too overpowering to work with the others in the wallhanging plus I set the right hand side of the base of the hatbox a little higher than the others and it’s a bit on the wonk so we’ll see.

Here are all six I’ve completed so far which I’ve displayed on my design wall. I call it a design wall but, in reality, it’s a flannel sheet draped over a towel rail which the blocks are clinging to in the manner of a set of Fuzzy Felt – how I used to adore my fuzzy felts – and this is the extent of its displaying capabilities.

Eventually, the layout will be four hatboxes across and three down with sashing and, possibly, a border. Should be ready around May/June time.

Talk of Fuzzy Felt sent me off down a rabbit hole and I found myself looking at vintage sets.

I know I definitely had this one

and I had one with mostly shapes so you could be a bit freestyle.

I’m pretty sure I had this one

and I think I might have had this one………

………………although that might just be wishful thinking because I loved Noddy and – look! – they’ve got proper little faces and everything.

I know these were made in England but my non-Brit followers might have had them because, according to Wikipedia, since the creation of Fuzzy Felt in the 1950s, more than 25 million sets have been sold internationally and although Fuzzy-Felt reached its peak in popularity sometime in the mid-1970s, it remains an iconic children’s toy, still enjoyed by children who play with it and parents who nostalgically purchase it.

Don’t think I’m not tempted.

So – which sets did you have? If it was something like a My Little Pony set or anything else post 1980, don’t tell me as you are too young and I will become depressed.